Within days, Russian media reported loudly “New York Times” two deaths of senior Russian officials officially ruled a suicide. The circumstances cannot be independently confirmed.
Marina Yankina, head of the finance department of the Western Military District of the Russian Defense Ministry, was reportedly found Wednesday under the window of a 16th-floor balcony in Saint Petersburg. According to the Russian news channel RBC and the “New York Times”, her death is considered a possible suicide.
Vladimir Makarov, an official at Russia’s Interior Ministry, was also allegedly found dead of a suicide attempt earlier this week, shortly after his dismissal from office.
Sudden deaths in the ranks of Russian civil servants and officers have repeatedly occurred in Russia since the beginning of the war. The Russian media often reports that the victims fall and interprets this as suicide.
The military district where officer Yankina worked was the center of attention in the autumn when a large-scale reshuffle of those responsible took place there. Within a very short time, a number of officials were replaced “to use as scapegoats for the failures in the Kharkiv region and in Lyman,” reported the “Institute for the Study of War” at the time.
General Makarov’s body is said to have been found in a place just outside Moscow.
The Russian media landscape is directly controlled by the Kremlin. If journalists make statements against the war in Ukraine, they face imprisonment for “discrediting the Russian military” and “false information”.
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